WRAPUP 3-Obama seeks swift passage of U.S. fiscal package

*Obama says country "in a very difficult spot"

*Republicans like significant tax cuts in stimulus

*Former Clinton chief of staff Panetta named for CIA

*Obama sees stimulus package by early February

By David Alexander and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - With the economic outlook darkening, U.S. President-elect Democrat Barack Obama went to Congress two weeks before taking office to try to entice Republican support for a massive stimulus package with talk of big tax cuts.

"We are in a very difficult spot," Obama told reporters as he huddled with economic advisers and shuttled between meetings with Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate. "The situation is getting worse."

Although Obama acknowledged the big economic stimulus bill -- now put at as much as $775 billion over two years -- will not be waiting on his desk when he takes office on Jan. 20 as he had wanted, some key Republicans were moving to his side.

"I think there will be widespread Republican enthusiasm for having a significant percentage of the package be tax relief," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said after meeting with Obama.

"We'll be interested to see not only the size of the tax package but how it's crafted," he said. As Obama proposed during the campaign, workers would get a $500 payroll tax credit and businesses would receive tax breaks to create jobs, part of what a senior Democratic aide said could be $300 billion in tax cuts.

Even with the tax cuts, Republicans, who are in the minority in both chambers, emphasized their concerns about the size, which they fretted could top $1 trillion.

"While we want to get the economy moving again, the overall size and how we craft this is going to be important," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.

One Democratic House leadership aide said the goal is to pass a stimulus bill by the end of January, giving the Senate time to debate a measure that Obama could sign into law by the start of the next congressional recess on Feb. 13.

"We anticipate that by the end of January or the first week in February we have gotten the bulk of this done," Obama said.

During his first visit to the U.S. Capitol since he was elected on Nov. 4, Obama met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and said new jobs data this week would likely be "sobering" and underscore the need for action.

The current U.S. recession began in December 2007 and, according to a Reuters poll, economists are expecting Labor Department data on Friday to show payroll jobs dropping by 500,000, bringing job losses for 2008 to about 2.5 million.